1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a method and system for data processing and in particular to a data processing system and method for graphically indicating a valid input within a graphical user interface. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a data processing system and method for graphically indicating whether or not manipulation of a user input device will generate a valid input while a particular region of a graphical display is identified.
2. Description of the Related Art
The development and proliferation of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) has greatly enhanced the ease with which users interact with data processing systems. A conventional GUI display includes a desktop metaphor upon which one or more icons, application windows, or other graphical objects are displayed. Typically, a data processing system user interacts with a GUI display utilizing a graphical pointer, which the user controls with a graphical pointing device such as a mouse, trackball, or joystick. For example, depending upon the actions allowed by the active application or operating system software, the user can select icons or other graphical objects within the GUI display by positioning the graphical pointer over the graphical object and depressing a button associated with the graphical pointing device. In addition, the user can typically relocate icons, application windows, and other graphical objects on the desktop utilizing the well known drag-and-drop technique. By manipulating the graphical objects within the GUI display, the user can control the underlying hardware devices and software objects represented by the graphical objects in a graphical and intuitive manner.
Conventional GUIs frequently include at least one icon or application window that supports multiple functions. Such GUIs often assign one of the multiple functions to each button of the graphical pointing device in order to permit the user to easily invoke a selected one of the functions supported by the multifunction icon or window. When the GUI includes a large number of multifunction icons or windows as well as other single-function graphical objects, it is often difficult for a user to remember which button selections will generate a valid input for each window and icon, particularly when the permissible button selections change during data processing. Because conventional GUls do not provide a user with an indication of the inputs supported by each of the various graphical objects, the user must often resort to trial-and-error to determine which inputs a selected graphical object supports. Thus, the failure of conventional GUIs to provide a graphical indication of the inputs each graphical object supports diminishes the graphical and intuitive appeal of conventional GUIs.
As should thus be apparent, it would be desirable to provide an improved method and system for indicating to a user which inputs are supported within a GUI.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an improved method and system for data processing.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved data processing system and method for graphically indicating a valid input within a graphical user interface.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a data processing system and method for graphically indicating whether or not manipulation of a user input device will generate a valid input while a particular region of a graphical display is identified.
The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. A data processing system and method of graphically indicating a valid input are provided. In accordance with the present invention, a graphical display including one or more regions is displayed within a display device of a data processing system. In addition, a graphical object corresponding to the user input device is displayed within the display device. A particular one of the one or more regions is then identified. An aspect of the graphical object indicates whether or not manipulation of the user input device will generate an input while the particular region is identified.
The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.